BBC News reports that French police have arrested a 24-year old Algerian man accused of plotting a terror attack against churches who called an ambulance after suffering self-inflicted gunshot wounds:
The man, a computer science student who had lived in France for several years, was detained on Sunday after he apparently shot himself by accident and called for an ambulance. Police followed a trail of blood leading to his vehicle, where they found notes "unambiguously demonstrating" he planned an imminent attack, according to [Minister of the Interior] Mr Cazeneuve. "Several war weapons, hand guns, ammunition, bullet-proof vests, and computer and telephone hardware" were discovered at his car and home, Mr Cazeneuve added.
No links between the man and other terror groups was found, although he was previously flagged by police after he expressed the desire to travel to Syria to fight with militants, a sentiments shared by hundreds of other French citizens already fighting with ISIS. The man has also been connected to the death of a woman found in her car near Paris, although no details have yet been released concerning his link to that case.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by GungnirSniper on Wednesday April 22 2015, @08:52PM
In Latest Book, Ayaan Hirsi Ali Says Reform Is The Best Weapon Against Radical Islam [huffingtonpost.com]
Islam needs an internal reformation that rejects the interpretations of the Safalists and Wahhabis, and moderates groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and other political-Islam movements.
The louder we shout that it is Islam itself that is the problem, the more we strengthen the very radicals we want to weaken. Nothing rallies the other side like declaring them all evil.
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2, Flamebait) by jmorris on Wednesday April 22 2015, @11:34PM
Islam needs an internal reformation...
Agreed. But it is also clear than an agnostic in the U.S. such as myself isn't a part of that conversation within Islam. People like President el-Sisi of Egypt must be the ones who lead the fight against the 7th century interpretation of Islam. What we can do to assist him is to play bad cop to his good cop.
The problem, in a nutshell, is the moderates are trying to make the argument that attempting to wage a Holy Jihad against the West would be suicidal. However we are making their problem intractable by our continual displays of weakness to Islamic aggression. War is usually caused when two sides misunderstand the relative strengths of the the sides. We are currently, by displays of weakness, encouraging war.
If we truly were weak and they strong, there would be no war. We would eventually actually submit to Islam.
If they were weak and knew it and we were seen as strong there would be no war as we in the West tend not to start them and they would know it would be suicide to attack from a position of weakness.
What we have though is the worst case scenario where they are weak and believe themselves to be strong and we are strong but seen as weak. However if provoked we will become enraged and make total war upon them. We will, to invoke Ann Coulter's infamous job ending phrase, "Bomb their cities, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity." just as soon as the public becomes angry enough to toss out the appeasing wankers currently setting policy.
It is our task to make a critical mass of Muslims understand that if angered we are still the same people who made total war in Europe and Asia.... at the same time. The same people who leveled entire cities in a single bombing mission and didn't feel overly sorry when they did it. Who made total war among ourselves up to and including Sherman's March to the Sea (essentially an officially sanctioned war crime against civilian populations) and the rest of our long and bloody history.
To prevent war we must remove all uncertainty and misunderstanding. They must be made to understand that we are not be made angry; they won't like it if we become angry. We only became frightened and annoyed after 9/11 and did some fairly limited smashing of things. If we truly became angry we would do things we would certainly regret fifty years later and university students would learn all about that 'legacy of hate'... but the class would be taught in English and not Arabic or Farsi. Islam could be as far outside social acceptability as Nazism in Germany.
(Score: 3, Informative) by demonlapin on Thursday April 23 2015, @03:00AM
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 23 2015, @09:09AM
Citation needed.
Its very amusing you say that and then devote two more paragraphs at how war-hungry the West is; and how we wage war all over the world etc...
(Score: 2) by fritsd on Thursday April 23 2015, @01:40PM
In Latest Book, Ayaan Hirsi Ali Says Reform Is The Best Weapon Against Radical Islam
That sounds like a 180° change of position with respect to her earlier essays, e.g. in "De Maagdenkooi", p. 81 in her collection "Ayaan Hirsi Ali Verzameld", she was very pessimistic about this kind of internal reformation.
(WARNING: essay may lead to depression)
(approx. p. 10 of de Maagdenkooi)
Maybe she has detected an improvement in the lives of muslim girls in the past decade..
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday April 23 2015, @03:34PM
"Maybe she has detected an improvement in the lives of muslim girls in the past decade.."
I just so happen to have a vast tract of swamp land in New Mexico to sell you. Don't worry the US Government won't get any taxes from it as it's located in Mexico...
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by fritsd on Thursday April 23 2015, @05:56PM
LOL
I'm just expressing that she used to be (in)famous about her critical stance towards islam (she was one of the most famous politicians in the Netherlands for quite a while). Now she moved to the USA in exasperation, and suddenly she produces a book "hey look people! it's all not so bad!"
(Score: 1, Disagree) by khallow on Thursday April 23 2015, @02:35PM
The louder we shout that it is Islam itself that is the problem, the more we strengthen the very radicals we want to weaken. Nothing rallies the other side like declaring them all evil.
No. There are two problems with your viewpoint. First, it isn't an internal problem. These radicals are harming many other people. We aren't interested in how radicals feel (or the massive populations who give sanction), we're interested in stopping the behavior. Allowing it to continue strengthens the radicals not denouncing their vile works. Islam is a key part of the problem.
Second, it worked before. For example, most racism in the US has been ended this way. We didn't wait for an internal reformation of racism.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday April 23 2015, @04:29PM
Bible Based Christian perspective on the Middle East and the End Times.
"http://www.amazingfacts.org/news-and-features/af-blog/id/1429/a-spiritual-upheaval.aspx"
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"